I've not been looking forward to this since I heard the synopsis described as, "all forms of technology stop working." Free pilot online is not really a good sign, but USB keyboards working seems to seal the deal.

If there are working USB keyboards in it, then pass, pass, pass.

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Key, I said "key" not "keyboard". You'll have to watch the episode to understand. It's only 43 minutes of your time, and no commercials.

The use of weapons indicates trust and rank. Grunts get swords, get a promotion you have a musket, get a promotion and you have a real gun.

But you heard them, owning a fire arm is a hanging offence.

Which makes the whole thing political, and not related to the blackout.

Apparently bullets are very easy to make..

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I would think that only a militarily incompetent idiot would hand out swords before handing out guns. Give man a gun and he can shoot it in a few minutes and be useful (in the 17th century sense) in battle in a few days or weeks. Give a man a sword and wait months for him to be of any use.

Someone does seem to have found a way to start making things. In a way that almost makes sense. I know at least one guy who lives within 50 miles of me and does blacksmithing for fun. A bunch of whack job Doomsday Preppers might find ways to encourage him to make more than 19th century style horseshoes and door handles.

The use of weapons indicates trust and rank. Grunts get swords, get a promotion you have a musket, get a promotion and you have a real gun.

But you heard them, owning a fire arm is a hanging offence.

Which makes the whole thing political, and not related to the blackout.

Apparently bullets are very easy to make..

Click to expand...

I would think that only a militarily incompetent idiot would hand out swords before handing out guns. Give man a gun and he can shoot it in a few minutes and be useful (in the 17th century sense) in battle in a few days or weeks. Give a man a sword and wait months for him to be of any use.

Someone does seem to have found a way to start making things. In a way that almost makes sense. I know at least one guy who lives within 50 miles of me and does blacksmithing for fun. A bunch of whack job Doomsday Preppers might find ways to encourage him to make more than 19th century style horseshoes and door handles.

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It would have taken years for the obvious stores of bullets to run out, and the guns to be collected by Munroe, where all the wolves killed each other. After that, what you got left is sheep (in theory).

Besides, Munroe is just a ruler, who collects taxes to pay for public works and protection from very real threats. You don't know what it's like to guard the frontier to his territories to keep all those sheep safe, or what his plans for expansion are. Mexicans and Canadians might be long way off, if he just runs a state or two, then Munroe has to deal with raiding parties from formerly fellow Americans thinking that they can pull one over on him.

What if what we are seeing is the malitia armed for police duties? Meanwhile on the border there's no shit about how well the 16th century rules. Theres just a lot of machine guns and they're being used constantly.

1. I have no problem with looney tunes militias taking over after a societal collapse. But if Doomsday Preppers has taught me anything...why would any of the militia types accept a black dude in their ranks?

We don't know if he's smashed or assimilated his nieghbours, or if their are cordial borders with truces, or actively hot borders on the brink of even more war... Then again, our heroes "walked" to Chicago in 2 days, which is maybe 40 miles. Which is what 1/2 an hour in car.

There could be thousands of warlords just like Munroe up and down North America.

I tried to watch it today, but couldn't get myself to care about any of it. The premise is utterly silly and the characters are boring as hell. Turned it off after 25 minutes or so. J.J. Abrams' pilots just keep getting worse and worse, don't they? I mean, Alias and Lost had fantastic pilots, but between Undercovers, Alcatraz, and this, I don't think he's got it any more. Or maybe he just has too much on his plate these days to care about tv? I would have expected more from Jon Favreau, as well.

I guess it's not fair to judge a show based on half a pilot, but I just couldn't see it getting much better any time soon. I mean, the Lost and Alias pilots had me hooked after the first 5 minutes, while this one didn't introduce a single major plot point or character that didn't have me shaking my head at the half-baked clichés.

Oh well, I might give it another shot if I hear it improves a lot after a couple of episodes, but so far I'm a bit disappointed.

I saw the pilot at the Toronto Fan-Expo about 2 weeks ago, Billy Burke himself was a surprise guest.

It was better than I thought. They're all too good looking and well-dressed but that's a conceit of TV. And I wasn't expecting General Munroe to be Charlies' Uncles' partner from before the blackout, or the twist with the convenient medicine woman. I'll keep up because there's a bit of interest.

No, that sword fight was more "Kill Bill" than "Princess Bride". No panache.

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It's just the lack of English accents.

Well.

There was one English Accent.

But that's neither here nor there.

The cinematography lost track of what was going on now and then, but the stunt coordinator is first rate. though what's the answer to this problem? Tell the stuntmen to be less amazing so that the cameramen can keep up?

And what's wrong with Kill Bill?

With all this post apocalypicsism talk, I started reading Y the last man this morning.

Revolution is heads and shoulders above Elementary, which isn't actually it's competition, but two new shows come out on the same day and we will make comparisons.

First reaction: the plane crashing the second the power goes out and smashing into town is straight out of Dies the Fire. Should have just adapted the series and cleaned up its lesser moments.

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Is there a justification for that? Loss of electrical power wouldn't cause a plane to crash.

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What...
Virtually all airliners today are fly-by-wire. Without electricity they have no controls. They would fall out of the sky like so many rocks.

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No, it won't fall like a rock. It will not magically lose all forward momentum and fall straight down. Not in a dive or an incline or anything. But literally straight down. Like someone lifted it up and then let go. Since, you know, that's exactly what happened in the show.

And where are all the simple mechanical machines in this setting? They clearly work, as made evident with the crossbows and modern firearms. Chemical systems still work, too, courtesy of seeing gunpowder and stills in action. So, where exactly is all the industrial revolution-esque technology? And how did entire cities, in which people are clearly still living, get overgrown with vegetation in only 15 years time?

Assuming that this magical field is being created by a satellite network (which is the only possibly way it could be, short of "magic"), then why wouldn't electrical systems work underground or inside certain types of buildings or rooms? Especially when we see that it is clearly possibly to have a field that protects against the effect (but which, for whatever reason, requires a makeshift computer rather than, you know, a real one, of which there would be tons to pick and choose from)?

Did anyone else get a Jericho feeling from watching this? The overought family drama was clearly there....but the woman with the computer that seems to know things definately made me think of Lenny James in Jericho.

Is there a justification for that? Loss of electrical power wouldn't cause a plane to crash.

Click to expand...

What...
Virtually all airliners today are fly-by-wire. Without electricity they have no controls. They would fall out of the sky like so many rocks.

Click to expand...

No, it won't fall like a rock. It will not magically lose all forward momentum and fall straight down. Not in a dive or an incline or anything. But literally straight down. Like someone lifted it up and then let go. Since, you know, that's exactly what happened in the show.

And where are all the simple mechanical machines in this setting? They clearly work, as made evident with the crossbows and modern firearms. Chemical systems still work, too, courtesy of seeing gunpowder and stills in action. So, where exactly is all the industrial revolution-esque technology? And how did entire cities, in which people are clearly still living, get overgrown with vegetation in only 15 years time?

Assuming that this magical field is being created by a satellite network (which is the only possibly way it could be, short of "magic"), then why wouldn't electrical systems work underground or inside certain types of buildings or rooms? Especially when we see that it is clearly possibly to have a field that protects against the effect (but which, for whatever reason, requires a makeshift computer rather than, you know, a real one, of which there would be tons to pick and choose from)?

It's infuriating.

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The overgrown vegetation did not really bother me. If Life After People has tought me anything its that plants would take over farly quickly without people to maintain the structures. (of course the shot of Wrigley Field seemed odd since it was TOO overgrown especially given that its located in a densely packed part of the city).

The airplanes suddenly falling made no sense. Airplanes are perfectly capable of gliding unless the pilots suddenly fell asleep.

What no one seems to have addressed is the fact that there are quite a few nuclear power plants in Illinois. If power suddenly stopped working there would be nothing to prevent them (or any of the hundreds of plants around the world) from going into meltdown.